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Re: Góquim

From:Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Date:Wednesday, August 6, 2003, 10:32
Quoting Peter Bleackley <Peter.Bleackley@...>:

> Staving Thomas Wier: > >Quoting Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>: > > > > > One of the verb affixes is called "infinite". Is that a > > > typo for "infinitive", or is it some kind of tense used for > > > general truths and timeless static situations? The latter > > > would be cool, but I somewhat doubt it was the intention. > > > >If so, the traditional name for such a tense is "gnomic". > > What a wonderful name for a tense! Presumably, an elvish language should > always include a gnomic tense.
Hm, unfortunately, Quenya uses a tense called "aorist" for that. And if I recall my Greek correctly (fat chance!), that means etymologically much the same as "infinite". Standard example: The Quendi are _i carir quettar omainen_ "those who form words with voices". My Elvish lang uses the uninflected verb for that. Given its most common function, a traditionalist western philologist would undoubtedly named it "imperfect". Andreas

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Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...>